{"id":336564,"date":"2025-05-13T17:39:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T12:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=336564"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T05:55:50","slug":"safe-harbour-and-social-media-liability-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/safe-harbour-and-social-media-liability-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe Harbour and Social Media Liability in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>News:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting made submissions to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and IT. It stated that it is reconsidering the concept of safe harbour for social media platforms to tackle the spread of fake news online. <strong>Safe Harbour and Social Media Liability in India.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-337261 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?resize=526%2C349&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Safe Harbour and Social Media Liability in India\" width=\"526\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?resize=300%2C199&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?resize=1024%2C680&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?resize=768%2C510&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>About Safe Harbour<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Safe harbour is a legal protection granted to websites that host third-party content, shielding them from liability for unlawful user posts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, this protection is provided under <\/span><b>Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It ensures that intermediaries are not punished for content they did not create, encouraging online innovation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This protection is withdrawn if platforms do not act after receiving official notice of illegal content.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How Intermediary Liability is Regulated in India<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b> <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> impose additional obligations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Platforms must appoint a nodal and grievance officer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They must be India-based and submit regular compliance reports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In <\/span><b>2023<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, amendments were notified allowing the Press Information Bureau\u2019s fact-check unit to identify \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This provision was challenged in court.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b> <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the petitioners<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the government is appealing the decision.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reasons for Reconsideration Safe Harbour<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The government accuses social media platforms of: Not following Indian laws, Delaying takedown actions, Ignoring content flagged as harmful.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Disputes with X (formerly Twitter) illustrate these tensions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The government aims to push platforms to act against misinformation, deepfakes, and cyberfrauds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A proposed <\/span><b>Digital India Act<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may revise safe harbour norms, though no draft is available yet.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting made submissions to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and IT. It stated that it is reconsidering the concept of safe harbour for social media platforms to tackle the spread of fake news online. Safe Harbour and Social Media Liability in India. About Safe Harbour Safe harbour&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/safe-harbour-and-social-media-liability-in-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Safe Harbour and Social Media Liability in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10367,"featured_media":337261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1731,1738,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-336564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-bill-and-acts","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Safe-Harbour-and-Social-Media-Liability-in-India.png?fit=1280%2C850&ssl=1","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}